Esh Winning cashpoint raiders foiled by resident

The bank in Esh Winning where a forklift was used in an attempted robbery

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

THIEVES targeting a village cashpoint fled empty handed when they were rumbled by a local resident.

The crooks made their move on the Lloyds TSB cash machine in Esh Winning, County Durham, at around 2am yesterday.

They used a forklift normally used on building sites, to ram the machine and rip it out the wall.

But they made such a noise that they woke a nearby resident, who spotted what was going on and immediately rang the police.

Realising they had been seen, the criminals fled the scene on foot.

Within minutes, police arrived in cars and vans and a helicopter was launched to try and find the offenders.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said police cordoned off the area to investigate.

The 31-year-old added: “I’m from Esh Winning, so I know the village well and I have a lot of relatives and friends there. They rang and told me yesterday morning what had happened. It was a pretty daring robbery, to say the least.

“The village basically awoke on the Bank Holiday Monday to find that their bank’s ‘hole-in-the-wall’ actually was a hole in the wall after crooks had attempted the daring raid.

“I think it was around 2am when the robbers made their move. Using a telehandler forklift, which I’m assuming was probably stolen, they rammed the cashpoint machine from underneath and then ripped it out from the wall.

“The police were on the seen in a matter of minutes both on the ground in cars and in the air in a helicopter.

“I think the fact they left empty handed was without doubt due to the combination of the awareness and diligence of the local resident combined with the speed of response from the Durham police.”

Stephen Mole, who lives in the village, said the damage was so bad it looked like a missile had hit the wall.

The 37-year-old said: “It was about 5am and I was leaving the village to go on a fishing trip. As I passed the bank, I saw a forklift truck in the middle of the road and the side of the bank looked like it had been hit by a missile.

“There were police cars all around the area and it had been cordoned off from the public. I was really shocked, to say the least – you don’t hear of things like that happening in a quiet village such as Esh Winning.”

Another resident, David Hindmoor, 37, added: “At about 6.30am I was on my way to the newsagents.

“I looked to where the cash point normally is and there was just a hole in the wall.”